Thanksgiving snow

Today we celebrated Thanksgiving at my parent's house with wild turkey (shot by my Dad) and a freak November snowstorm. The turkey was a little tough compared to the store-bought version, but I imagine this turkey lived a much more fulfilling life...until the day he met my Dad in the woods during hunting season.


It was also my crazy nephew Nathan's birthday.

Yesterday I baby-sat for my friend David's 1.5 year old niece Rose. Rose has two older brothers and a reputation for being uncooperative when it comes to nap time and eating. However, she didn't put up much of a fuss when I wanted her to eat her chicken raviolis. When it was time to take a nap, I got half-way through my own paraphrased version of Jack and the Beanstalk before she was fast asleep. Her brother called me the "miracle babysitter" because apparently no baby sitter has been able to convince Rose to eat. During the day, we rearranged David's spice drawer, until Rose got a wif of the chili pepper and decided spices weren't fun anymore. I changed three diapers, one was atomic. We also watched a baby Mozart video over and over again. Its like crack for kids; she screamed when it was over and needed to be rewound (old VHS is so annoying). Rose wasn't a very big 1.5 year old, so I could hold her fine with my good arm, my "caning arm", keeping her weight on my hip. The other arm is useless. It has more extensive nerve damage and can't lift a gallon of milk. But overall, it was a good day and gave me confidence that I can be a parent.